1. It’s as far away in minutes from CTMQ HQ as you can possibly be and still be in Connecticut. (Perhaps Wilton is equidistant. Greenwich is further, sure, but it’s all highway and I can go a lot faster on highways than on byways.)2. I have to write a page about Beer’d now and anytime I want to make the company a possessive, it’ll look like this – “Beer’d's” – and that is just awful.

In other words, there is nothing at all to dislike about Beer’d. Quietly, Aaren Simoncini has developed one of my favorite breweries in just one year. In fact, I like his beers so much that I keep trying to come up with “normal” other reasons to drag my family to Rhode Isla – err, I mean eastern Stonington just so I can get to the brewery. “Going to Beer’d” alone works great for me, but my two little boys don’t get much out of that.

(Yes, it could be worse – I could live in, say, Salisbury, but we’re not talking about those people. They just go up to Massachusetts or over to the Catskills anyway.)

And not only is the beer at Beer’d great, everything about Aaren and his wife Precious and the physical space they occupy have been great for me to come to know. Well, I suppose there may be terrible dark secrets the couple keeps, but until I know them, I stand by my opinion.

Though honestly, both are so nice and personable I just can’t imagine… Perhaps I gravitate towards Aaren because he’s a bit of a nerd, who was a accountant and CFA after graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology. My bit of a nerd wife (see below) who went to the University of Rochester and Aaren gave each other that look that only those who spend time in Rochester can give each other. It’s called “The Frozen Rochester Buried in Snow” stare. And it’s scary.

Bust on Rochester all you want, but it was at RIT that Aaren was exposed to a course called “Beers of the World” and – Oh come on now. Really? I had that course at UCONN too, but it was held at Ted’s at 11PM on Friday nights, not in a lecture hall. Freaking Rochester. You see what I mean with those people?

Anyway, so hometown boy Aaren comes back to the Stonington area and did some accounting but ended up apprenticing over at Cottrell Brewing in Pawcatuck. Which is just Stonington but not Mystic Stonington. Or Stonington Borough. But you knew that.

All the while he home-brewed and somewhere along the way he realized he knew what he was doing. Saved up some dough, started a brewery and here we are.

Classy signage, delicious beer

Beer’d is deep in the bowels of the old Velvet Mill. They made actual legitimate velvet here and I have no idea why, but that’s interesting to me. Once you find your way back to the nano-brewery, you’ll almost always find a crowd and a very helpful and happy Precious with a very busy-yet-also-happy Aaren doing growler fills.

If you’re lucky, you’ll also find a basket of Beer’d beards with which to make your small children and wife look silly/cute. (Precious sits at home and makes these herself while watching TV. Insider tip.) The blackboard of the day’s offerings is beautifully rendered and while the “tasting room” itself is a bit cramped, it doesn’t matter because you have hundreds of square feet of Velvet Mill in which to mill around.

Oh I’m good.

Which brings us to the real reason you’d ever go to Beer’d: The beer. Now, I’ve been talking up Beer’d since I first had some of it many moons ago. I’ll admit, I love a good DIPA and I love a good Stout. And guess what? Beer’d specializes in DIPA’s and stouts. I noticed one day on Facebook it seemed like Aaren had 3 different DIPA’s on tap at the brewery. As ridiculous as that is, I was jealous of all those who could just hop over to Stonington. Bastards.

So there’s my bias: I love the styles Aaren loves. While everything I’ve had from Beer’d as of this writing has been fantastic, I’m certainly partial to a few.

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention Beer’d's (see how stupid that looks?) 2013 collaboration with fellow nano brewery superstar Relic. Called Nano-a-Nano, each brewery more or less followed the same recipe, but the output was slightly different. I love that they did this – and love that my friend Aron (yes, that’s right, another Aron spelled differently) a.k.a. CraftBrewGuy, helped bring them together for the official collaboration.

That’s our hero there, in beard

It was interesting to speak with both brewers at the release party, if only because while they have the same ethics and similar business plans, it’s amazing how different their palates and brewing processes are. I really enjoy getting the “insider scoop” on that stuff.

I’ve sent anyone who is in that area to Beer’d. There are sometimes waits for growler fills, but that will change as they figure it out a bit more. The triple shot of BF Clyde’s Cider Mill, Saltwater Farms Vineyards and Beer’d – mixed in with some other Mystic fun or other Stonington vineyards – make for one of the most perfect fall Saturdays you could do in Connecticut.

With the rapidly expanding landscape of Connecticut breweries and beers, I’m confident in saying that Beer’d is – and will continue to be – in my top 3 or 4 beer destinations in the state. Great people, great beer.

Addendums:

Beer’d was sort of a “goof-on-Aaren,” the weirdo obsessed with home-brewing name. Middle finger to all of them.

Yes, those are barrels for aging in that picture. I know what’s lurking, but I’ll keep the early 2014 secret.

If you’d like to know the long-winded kookaburra Baptist answer to, “Please comment on Psalm 133, where David said that unity is like oil running down the beard of Aaron. That certainly doesn’t seem “pleasant” or “beautiful.” – go here.